Chorazin

Chora'zin (Χοραζίν v. r. Χοραζείν, Χοροζαϊvν, and Χωραζίν), one of the cities (πόλεις) in which our Lord's mighty works were done, but named only in his denunciation (Mt 11:21; Lu 10:13; see Scherzer, Salvatoris oraculum, Vet tibi Chorazin, Lips. 1710), in connection with Bethsaida and Capernaum, not far from which, in Galilee, it appears to have been situated. It was known to Jerome, who describes it (Comm. in Matth. 11) as on the shore of the lake, 2 miles from Capernaum, or 12 miles, according to Eusebius (Onomast. s.v. Χωραζείν, Chorozain). Some compare the Talmudical Keraz n [q.v.J (כרזין, Menachoth, fol. 85, 1), mentioned as being famous for wheat (Reland, Palaest. p. 722; Schwarz, Palest. p. 189); while others compare " HAROSHETH SEE HAROSHETH(q.v.) of the Gentiles" (הִגּוֹים חֲרשֶׁת, Jg 4:2); and still others consider the name as having been in the vernacular Charashin (חרשין), i.e. woody places (Lightfoot, p. 160 sq.). Origen and some MSS. write the name Chora-Zin (Χώρα Ζίν, H. Ernesti, Observatt. Amst. 1636, 2:6), i.e. district of Zin; but this is probably mere conjecture. St.Willibald (about A.D. 750) visited the various places along the lake in the following order- Tiberias, Magdalum, Capernaum, Bethsaida, Chorazin (Early Trav. Bohn, p. 17), being doubtless guided by local tradition, for the knowledge of the site has become utterly extinct (Robinson, Researches, 3:295). Some writers at one time supposed it to be the same with Kelat el-Ilorsa, a place on the eastern shore of the Sea of Gennesareth, where Seetzen (Reisen, 1:344) and Burckhardt (Trav. p. 265) describe some ruins; but this is written Kel-Hossu on later maps. A more recent writer (in the Hall. Lit.- Zeit. 1845, No. 233) regards it as a place in Wady el-Jamus; but this also lacks authority. Pococke (East, 2:72) speaks of a village called Gerasi among the hills west of Tell-Houm, 10 or 12 miles north-north-east of Tiberias, and close to Capernaum. The natives, according to Dr. Richardson, call it Chorasi. It is apparently this place which Keith and Van de Velde (Memoir, p. 304) call Kerazeh, and describe as containing several pedestals of columns, with leveled shafts, and the remains of a building formed of large hewn stones; while Dr. Robinson (Later Biblical Res. p. 360) rejects the identification with disparagement of the antiquities (p. 347), although he did not visit the site (Biblioth. Sacra, 1853, p. 137), which Dr. Thomson, nevertheless, confidently adopts (Land and Book, 2:8), apparently with good reason. M. De Saulcy is disposed to identify Chorazin with the fountain Ain et-Tin, near the northern extremity of the plain of Gennesareth; but his arguments, except the vicinity of the spots to the lake, are frivolous (Narrative, 2:371). The question is intimately connected with that of the position of Capernaum (q.v.). Dissertations on the curse pronounced by Christ against this and the neighboring places (Mt 11:21) have been written in Latin by Scherzer (Lips. 1666), Hornbeck (Miscell. Sacr. Ultraj. 1687, I, 3:301 sq.), Schott (Tüb. 1766).